


Legend has it

by Perishthethought



Category: Build a bear - Fandom, Plushie - Fandom
Genre: Other, Plushie, buildabear, objectum - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 08:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27679945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perishthethought/pseuds/Perishthethought
Summary: The very beginning of a short series about Bunny (Mortimer) and his brand new life, will everything be peachy? Or is there a something that the innocent little plush needs to worry about in his near future.
Relationships: n/a
Kudos: 2





	1. Day one

**Author's Note:**

> I make no promises to update this in any reasonable time, nor do I promise that this has good grammar or spelling. I spend all my time writing fancy academic papers, this is what I do to relax so please don't expect Pulitzer quality from me.

Sitting on the shelf day in and day out was, well, boring. Bunny could see into the toy store across the mall hall, but that was about it. Occasionally someone would come into the workshop and pick out a new friend, who was always ecstatic to go, and shouted goodbye to their friends in the silent (to most humans) plush language. Sometimes the plushies that were chosen were even from the bin below Bunny, they were all identical to him of course, but he never got chosen. At first he had been proud of his status as a display piece, but as the weeks wore on he was starting to feel a little left out. That’s why he changed his name you see. Bunny was a character plush, and so all of the other plush like him called themselves Peter, but Bunny didn’t like having the same name as all of his siblings when they got chosen but he didn’t. It really wasn’t fair at all in his opinion. One evening, Bunny was sitting on the shelf, as per usual wearing a blue jacket and holding his carrot accessory, listening to the excited plush chatter around him, as all of the plushies who had been moved to the top of their bins were delighted, because there was a very good chance that tomorrow would be the day that they got to go home with someone who loved them. Some were talking about what accessories they hoped to go home with, and some were talking about what kind of child they wanted to go home with. The Pawlette next to him was really hoping for an adult collector, which caused their section to go silent while she defended her choice. She apparently loved being for display and looking sweet, while the unstuffed friends below her shook her off as they thought nothing could possibly be better than a home with lots of hugs. The chain curtain had already been pulled down, and the bear builders were looking through their inventory to get ready for the next morning. A builder walked past Bunny with a checklist, looked at him and then suddenly spun back around.   
“Claire!! Is this still the old model of Peter Rabbit?” Bunny cringed at his character name.   
“Uh...yeah? Why?” Claire asked.  
“We were supposed to switch out the display to the newer model last week!!” The manager spun around, looking almost frantic. And before he knew entirely what had happened, bunny had been whisked into the back room and unstuffed, before being placed in the bin with the Peters. He felt a glimmer of hope in his newly unstuffed chest, Tomorrow, tomorrow he could get his own person.   
Bunny thought a lot about what type of person he’d like that night. He wouldn’t care much if it was a boy or a girl he decided, but he’d really like some friends wherever he ended up. Maybe another rabbit, or a bear, it didn’t really matter. Bunny didn’t want to be alone, but he didn’t want to be surrounded by other Peters forever either.   
Of course, this thought was interrupted in the morning by another layer of Peters being stacked on top of him from the back stock room. Bunny’s heart sunk, now unless everyone who came in that day got a Peter, no one would buy Bunny.   
Thankfully for Bunny, the next day was sunday so the store was packed with people going in and out in a (mostly) orderly fashion constantly. Though he did hear the employee’s quietly complaining about someone walking in and out without buying anything three or four times. Finally it was the end of the day, and even though Bunny was on the top of the pile now, he was sure he wasn’t going anywhere that night.   
It couldn’t have been more than half an hour until closing when he heard a “Hi Welcome to Build a Bear!” In the distance, followed by the spiel about social distancing. He couldn’t hear anyone except the builder talking, but they were speaking as if they were responding to questions. Gradually he saw someone walking up and down the wall of plushies. An adult, with bright pink hair, almost the same color as some of the Kabu line. He didn’t see any children with them, but based on the season they could just as well be buying gifts. He watched them walk past him twice before he heard a soft voice that turned the pink one’s head.   
“You know you do like bunnies…” a man he hadn’t seen before said, without looking up from his cellphone.   
“You’re right, and I don’t have any either.” The pink haired one immediately gravitated to the Pawlettes next to him. They looked around for a moment and gasped softly. They stared into the bin that Bunny was in for the longest time, before they finally made eye contact with Bunny. They gingerly picked him up by the ears, and took him to the stuffing station. There was a bit of a kerfluffle, because he was missing his ear tag, but it was all sorted out quickly, even though he had to be taken to the register to get sewn up. Before that the human picked out a jacket for Bunny, and toted him over to the naming machine. His lack of tag once again presented an issue, but they worked it out quickly. Bunny suddenly perked up, he hadn’t considered what he was hoping his name would be. Really anything except Peter would be fine. The human looked at him and considered for a moment, before typing “Mortimer” into the machine. Mortimer… Bunny liked that very much. It wasn’t anything like Peter. Mortimer was then sat on the counter and stitched up, and then taken out of the store, at first with his face pressed into the human’s chest, which made Mortimer a little grumpy, as he had been desperate to see the christmas decorations. But they soon turned him around so he could see, and held him up by the paws, chatting somberly with the man they were with. Mortimer wasn’t really paying attention, as he was looking at all the beautiful lights and the small trees. Eventually they went outside, the-no, His human pulling up Mortimer’s jacket before they hit the truly cold part. He was content to look around while he wondered about the home he was going to.   
But just then, as the car was pulling away from the mall, he got his first ever hug. He’d been carried before, but this was the kind of hug that the other toys had been yearning for all this time. And Mortimer knew at last, he was finally going home.


	2. The long dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things aren't always as they seem.

Mortimer woke up with a start, the pink haired human, who's name was apparently either Zack, Zackira, babe, baby, honey, or sweetheart depending on which of the other humans was talking to him, had elected to spend that night on the couch. Mortimer rolled over gently, he was just starting to be able to move around and wanted to see more of the dimly lit room. He came face to face with a Teddy Bear sitting with her legs crossed, scrolling through the humans tablet.  
"Oh good you're awake" she said in their silent plush language. The little bear closed the tablet and stood up to drag Mortimer to his feet. He slowly got his balance and she let go of him.  
"I'm sorry, what was your name again?" Mortimer asked, testing out his shaky limbs. 

"Hope, my name is Hope. And you're Mortimer!" She chirped, hugging him tightly. He awkwardly hugged her back. Most of the awkwardness was because of how new he was to movement, but also partially because he wasn't sure if he'd even met this strange bear before.  
"Can you walk with me?" The bear asked, holding out her paw and gesturing to the darkness outside of the circle of blankets that the human- Zack, was sleeping in. "Uh sure I guess?" he said. It took him a few tries to get his footing just right, but it was much easier once they were on the flat floor. They walked into the total darkness of the kitchen, at which point Hope clicked on a flashlight that doubled as a pen  
"Do you know why you're here?" The rainbow and white bear asked, almost menacingly as she shone the light into Mortimers hard plastic eyes. "Uhm... To be hugged and played with?" He tried tentatively  
"No! I mean yes, mostly, but also no" Hope said, moving the flashlight out of his eyes and producing a very small sketch book from seemingly nowhere.  
"So Zack, our human, over there" she gestured with the pen "He's a good guy, but he's... Well, he's opened some doors that can't be closed if you catch my drift" she said, looking over her shoulder carefully.  
"Uhm, No?" Mortimer shrugged.  
Hope sighed and put her paws over her snout, momentarily lighting up the ceiling

"Aren't you curious, as to how you can move right now?" Mortimer shrugged "for Most toys it takes years to be imbued with enough love to even move a little,you've been here for three hours and look at you!" Mortimer froze as he was reaching for a bag of marshmallows.  
"I guess that is kinda weird... I was on display for awhile so maybe-" he stuttered. Hope shook her head, "No, it's him. Have you noticed the other weird thing about this house?" She asked. Mortimer looked around thoughtfully.  
"There aren't doors on any of these cabinets". Hope chuckled, but shook her head again and gestured for him to follow her. They clambered up the exposed shelves and sat on top of a large box of popcorn. 

"Look" she said, and aimed her pen light at the sleeping human. At first Mortimer was worried that he would wake up, but he simply sighed and rolled over. The rabbit looked at Hope and was about to ask a question but the brightly colored bear shook her head and gestured at the sleeping figure.  
At first everything seemed normal, but after a few seconds of silence, the shadows around him started to shift in unnatural ways. Mortimer was horrified as what had started as innocent shadows took form into tendrils of darkness and reached out to the sleeping boy, when they touched him he groaned in pain. Other shadows took the form of figures, neither human nor animal, the only features Mortimer could see were mouths, lined with firey pinpricks for teeth and practically oozing a smokey miasma.  
Mortimer felt a chill ruffle his fur as he made eye contact with one of the figures standing over the sleeping boy, he wanted to-no, needed to run. Hope placed her paw on his leg and he felt momentarily reassured, but his newfound motion was itching to send him tearing off into another room.  
But something held him to the spot. He looked out at the once empty room now swarming with monstrous beings and saw the previously content Zack's face twist into a pained, almost afraid look. His ears twitched and he wanted to run again, but this time towards the thing that was making him afraid. His boy needed him, and deep within his fluff, he knew what he had to do


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mortimer meets some more residents of his new home.

Mortimer threw himself off the box he was sitting on, hurling himself towards the swarm of shadowy figures. He wasn’t really sure what his plan was, his thought process largely stopped at “do SOMETHING”. He almost didn’t hear Hope shout “No!” as he made contact with the nearest shadow, his digitless paws balled in fury. 

The next morning he woke up to the sun gently streaming through barely parted curtains, and several other plushies gathered around him, staring intently at him. He sat up slowly and looked around, finding the room empty except for the living cat who was snoozing peacefully on a pillow that had fallen to the floor. He then noticed that he was in an entirely different room than he had been the night before. He was suddenly aware of the other plushies, who were looking at him apprehensively.   
“Hey… are you okay?” a purple cat wearing a red sweater asked tentatively.   
“I think so? I’m Mortimer,” he said, realizing he was being impolite by not introducing himself.   
“That’s Morgan,” said a large brown bear “I’m Thomas, and this is Sparx and Nana,” he said, gesturing at a yellow pokemon and a goat respectively. Mortimer waved awkwardly, as they all nodded at him in turn. A noise from the foot of the bed they were all sitting on called his attention, and he saw Hope’s head pop up over the edge, lugging a large green bag.   
“Okay I found his sewing kit, it was under the couch so I can… You’re awake! How’re you feeling buddy?” she asked, with a voice so concerned that, if Mortimer had one, would’ve brought his mother to mind instantly.   
“I’m alright… What happened? Last thing I remember was hitting one of those shadow monsters,” Mortimer said, his ears twitching.   
“He HIT one of the Shadows?!” Morgan gasped “Wait you do use he dont you?” the purple cat spun to face him.   
“Oh shoot, do over! Do over on introductions!” Thomas groaned.   
“No! No there isn’t time Zack will be back from the store any minute. I’ll catch everyone up quickly,” Hope interjected. “Morgan, they/them, Thomas, he/him, Sparx, anything you want except late for dinner, Nana, She/her and the same for myself,” Hope listed, pointing her paw at everyone as they were mentioned.   
“To answer your question, Morgan, Yes. He hit one. He launched himself halfway across the damned house and got it square in the… chest? Middle bit. It disappeared immediately after, and the others were spooked enough that they hung back until Zack woke up,” Hope said with an air of seriousness that seemed to take hold over the entire room, making it seem dark despite the bright sunlight.   
“He Poofed it??? On his first night?” Thomas exclaimed. Hope nodded seriously.   
“We’ve taken so long to figure what it is we’re dealing with, they’ve gotten out of control, even one a night would be enough to put a dent in their numbers…” Nana said, pacing anxiously.   
“It might’ve just been a fluke, we don’t know that he can do it every night,” Sparx said, flicking his ear towards mortimer for emphasis. Mortimer had stopped Paying Attention to The arguing plushies, and was instead watching a small teddy bear climbing carefully off the nearby windowsill. The bear moved slowly, and as he came more into view it became apparent that he was very old, and very well loved. Mortimer watched with interest as the old bear walked calmly up behind Morgan, who was still arguing about the importance of doing introductions properly, as the rest of the stuffed animals fell into a silent reverence.   
“He’s behind me isn’t he,” Morgan said, stitched on eyes somehow seeming wider. The plushies around her, even Mortimer, all nodded.   
“It’s alright Morgan, you younguns treat me with too much respect as it is,” the old bear spoke, his high and clear voice clashing violently with his haggard appearance.   
“I’m ST, you must be Mortimer,” the old bear said, extending his paw in the style of a handshake. The bunny took it and shook gently, which is surprisingly hard when you don’t have any fingers. The other stuffed animals looked at him reverentially, and he had an air of kindness and wisdom about him, that Mortimer imagined was from years of experience.   
“Now you all need to lighten up, have you forgotten how we welcomed each and every one of you? You were given love, shown around wherever we had to stay, taught the best ways to get a good snuggle and now what are you doing? You immediately launch into how you can use this bunny for our own gains. You should be ashamed of yourselves,” ST said, making the plushies around him look at their paws awkwardly. “I don’t care if this bunny could turn the tides of our struggles right now, Zack loves him and that’s enough for me. And it should be enough for you!” the little bear said, voice brimming with anger. Across the small apartment, the front door opened and the plushies frantically scrambled back into their places, waiting for their next chance to make amends.


End file.
